At least three dead as Putin’s missiles pound Ukrainian restaurant

At least four people were killed, including a teenager, after Putin‘s missiles pounded a crowded Ukrainian restaurant, with dozens trapped and hurt in the wreckage.

More than 42 people were wounded in the strike – which hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian police said Russia fired two S-300 surface-to-air missiles at the city.

‘The bodies of three people, including a minor born in 2008, have been recovered from the rubble,’ the interior ministry said on Telegram. 

Among the injured was an infant born last year.

A crying woman is held by a man at the site of a restaurant building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike

Rescues and volunteers carry a woman rescued from the debris at the site of hotel and restaurant buildings heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike

A view shows a building of a restaurant heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine

The Ukrainian emergency service said on Telegram that 42 people were injured in the strike, which destroyed the popular Ria Pizza restaurant.

Emergency workers scurried in and out of the restaurant as residents stood outside embracing and surveying the damage from the strike.

The building was reduced to a twisted web of metal beams. Police and soldiers emerged carrying a stretcher bearing a man in military trousers and boots. He was placed in an ambulance, though it was not clear whether he was still alive.

‘There were a lot of people in there – there are children under the rubble,’ said Yevgen, who had been dining with two friends.

Two men screamed in frenzied tones for a tow rope, then ran back towards the rubble.

‘I ran here after the explosion because I rented a cafe here. … Everything has been blown out there,’ Valentyna, 64, said.

‘None of the glass, windows or doors are left. All I see is destruction, fear and horror. This is the 21st century.’

‘We were just about to leave,’ he said, but one of his friends was now ‘under the rubble’, he said after the explosion.

A crowd quickly gathered at the site, where fires continued to burn as soldiers and rescue workers searched for other victims.

Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said two Russian rockets had struck the city that was once home to 150,000 people, one of the largest still under Ukrainian control in the country’s besieged east.

‘There was a good crowd’ at the restaurant when the missile hit, one of its cooks, 32-year-old Ruslan, said.

‘I had just arrived: I was standing there, and then I was buried,’ he said. ‘I was lucky.’

Natalia, in tears, said her half-brother Nikita, 23, was inside near the pizza oven.

‘They can’t get him out, he was covered’ by debris, she said.

Video footage posted by the Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko showed wailing emergency vehicles pulling into the affected area and rescue teams in protective equipment moving in the building’s shattered structure.

Other footage on military Telegram channels showed one man, his head bleeding, receiving first aid on the pavement. 

An injured man reacts at the site of a hotel building heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike

Rescuers and volunteers work to rescue people from under the rubble after a missile strike hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk

A wounded woman waves while speaking on the phone as rescuers and volunteers work to rescue people from under rubble after Russian missile strike to a pizzeria

Search and rescue efforts continue after a Russian missile attack hit a restaurant in Kramatorsk

Rescuers and volunteers carry a person from the rubble after Russian missile strike hit a restaurant and several houses in Kramatorsk

Rescuers and volunteers carry a rescued woman from the rubble after Russian missile strike hit a restaurant and several houses in Kramatorsk

Several buildings nearby were also damaged in the strike on the city, which Russia has often targeted since its invasion in February 2022.

Kramatorsk lies about 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the front line.

‘People told me they heard a plane flying, there was a hissing and then an explosion,’ a 19-year-old Ukrainian soldier who gave his war name as ‘Ghost’, and was nearby when the strike occurred, told AFP.

He quickly entered the restaurant to help rescue workers. ‘A girl was trapped, injured. They haven’t yet been able to get her out,’ he said.